School Starts Today!!

Who doesn't love the first day of school?  Especially if you homeschool, like we do.  Since I don't have those "getting on the school bus" pictures, I thought I would share some pics of Abbie doing her "school work".  These are older pics, but she looks so cute that I couldn't help but post them.

Abbie always has a need to know what the date is.  Not sure why, but she kept track of the date on these wall calendars until I took them down one year.  She now keep track of all her important "things to do" in her planner.

Wishing you all a great school year.

Caroline

Lakewood Blue Claws

We are going to the Blue Claws tonight to see not only the game, but the Famous Chicken mascot.  Since I won't have those pics to scrap for months, I thought I would post some layouts from previous years. 

Abbie got her face painted so many times that Lois spotted her from a mile away.  Lois was always great and did such a great job.

I used the Sweet Branch collection from Crate Paper.  Love the colors and die cuts that coordinate.  Not sure if you can see it in the pic, but I also used Stickles on some of the die cuts.

The same day, Abbie got to go out on the field before the game to throw a pitch.  It was the end of the season and one of the last games we went to.

I used Delight papers from Fancy Pants Designs as well as rub-ons (big surprise, right) from Basic Grey and Fancy Pants Designs and brads from Making Memories.

Caroline

My Attempt at Minimalist Scrapping

Is that even a real term?  Who knows, but here is my attempt at keeping the embellishments and papers to a minimum.  I have a habit of wanting to fill every last nook with "something".  It was pretty hard for me to hold back.

I used papers and embellishments from Chloe's Closet by Making Memories.

Here's the other page.  Not very minimalistic.  See, told you I have a hard time holding back.

Caroline

Random Photos

I love random photos of just everyday moments.  I had a whole bunch of these little faces staring at me one day so I decided to make a collage out of them.  It was fun because it was like making 9 little tiny layouts.  I used a Close to my Heart paper pack and other random embellishments (Prima flowers, CTMH brads, Heidi Swapp ghost letters and a bunch of different ribbons).

Caroline

Food Layout

This one is for you, Val!!  When we were in Buffalo back in February, we had dinner at the Pearl Street Grill.  It was a really neat sports bar with awesome food.  And what kind of scrap would I be if I didn't take pics of the food. 

Everything on this layout is from one of my Scarlet Lime kits.  I'm going to start keeping better track of the products I use so I can let you all know.

Caroline

3 Things I Use Most On My Layouts...

Lately, that's rub-ons, ink in various forms and border punches.  Not sure why, but I am lovin' these. 

My favorite border punches are from Fiskars.  I have about 6 of them and use them all the time.  I can't seem to get the hang of the corner punches, but that's ok. 

I am really into rub-ons too.  Rub-on letters, (Making Memories are my favorite at the moment) rub-on backgrounds (Basic Grey and Glitz are at the top of my pile right now) and rub-on shapes and swirls (Basic Grey wins for those too).

I'm not a big stamper (probably why I didn't make it as a CTMH consultant) but I love to ink layouts.  I ink just about anything:  Grunge Board, photos, borders...you name it, I ink it.  I really like the shape of Color Box Cat's Eye stamp pads.  They're small and the color is nice and bold.

I used mostly Basic Grey paper for these layouts.  Enjoy this rare glimpse of me (that's me with the glasses).  I seldom come out from behind the camera.

Caroline

Meet my Family

So you want to meet my family?  Here they are.  That's Tom and Abbie in the first photo.  We were riding the train at Allaire State Park.  My kids after wrestling around in the second photo.  My kids again in the third photo.  Tommy's all dressed for the winter formal.  He looked so handsome in his suit.  And Tom and Abbie again in the last photo.  We were at the Franklin Institute.

I love to throw together random photos and make layouts out of them.  No one ever said the pics had to be from the same day or event, right?

I had been wanting to join a monthly scrapping club for a while.  I spent months looking at different clubs, watching to see what products they were using each month, trying to decide which would suit me best.  I finally decided on Scarlet Lime.  I made this layout using the first kit I got.  It was really fun working with all the different papers and embellishments.

And who could forget my furry child.  Now you know why we call her Fatty.  These pics were pre-diet a few years ago, but I thought it would be fun to see how she got her name.  She is definitely thinner and healthier now.

Caroline

Beach Layout

Here is your first layout. It's one of my older layouts (I scrapped it in May 2009) but I wanted to share a beach layout. We spend a lot of time at the beach during the summer so what better way to kick off my blog than with a beach layout. 

I don't really remember what most of the products are, but I do remember this was the first time I had used Stickles. Abbie and I went to the Ranger warehouse sale and stocked up on a large array of Stickles colors.

Caroline

Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog!!  This is my first venture into blogging and I'm pretty excited about it. 

I starting scrapping about 9 years ago when Abbie was born.  I wanted to not only capture moments on film for her, but to also share with her what was going on at that time and why those moments where so special.  And if I'm being totally honest, I REALLY like to play with paper too!!

So here I am 9 years later with thousands of memories waiting to be scrapped and endless possibilities for them. So I will be sharing my layouts here for you all to see.  Some new layouts, some older layouts, some layouts that I'm really proud of and so that are just ok.

I welcome your comments and suggestions, good or bad,  so feel free to let me know what you think.

Now I'm going to read through some more tutorials and see if I can't figure out how to post my first photo.